A Whack of Food Flops

Una dia de lecture note summarizing. Superbly thrilling.

Even more thrilling than the burnt waffle that I attempted to eat for breakfast. Sad times at my morning meal. I ate most of it anyway but the black crrrruuuuunch wasn?t quite the taste I was going for.

The BURN was cleverly hidden beneath a layer of pumpkin pie hummus and strained yogurt. If it weren?t for those show-stoppers making this edible, my poor waffle may have ended up in the trash. But all was not lost and it all ended with a clean plate (and only a few too burnt crumbly bits left to be forgotten).

As mentioned, plenty of studying happened. All day long. Lovin it?

Snacking through it.

Tuna on english muffin, mixed greens with honey mustard and cottage cheese.

Silken tofu blended with cocoa powder, banana and chocolate almond milk.

The end of an era, aka the last bits of a jalapeno hummus container that has been in my fridge for I don?t want to even talk about how long. We bought a duo pack of the giants at Costco once upon a shopping trip. AND bought several other random hummus flavours during several other random grocery store trips in between. So this poor thing got neglected. Nearing the end of its life it started to smell kinda?strange?but that?s nothing a good top layer scrape-off couldn?t fix. I?m still alive and kicking? ehem.

More of the greens (we had a big container) dressed in more of the honey mustard (it?s my favourite dressing (and currently only available option in my fridge)). A teeny kabocha (I ended up eating it all. Size of my two fists. No biggie, just a runt). Spoonful of mom?s rice + chicken stir fry (x3?).

Then I breaked to bake.

After my protein cake flop, I was willing to give my chocolate protein powder another try. It has to be good in April?s Low Cal/High Protein Brownies recipe right?

Ummmm no. Not right. Not right at ALL. Beautiful? Nearly! Delicious? That doesn?t even get a ?hardly?. Terrible? Ohhhh yes.
The Darn Deceptive Dish?

?that in reality turned into a pan of tasteless chalky mess.

I?ve come to the conclusion that my protein powder sucks for baking. No protein cakes, no protein brownies, no more breads will be made with the protein beast. I guess I?ll have to drink a lot of smoothies this summer. No-bake options are in the running as well. But no more baking. Guess I?m in the market for another protein powder brand for those tasks.

It was much more edible when mushed up into chocolate almond milk and topped with strained yogurt and peanut butter.

Yeah?I DID spend Friday night in studying. AND Saturday night. AND it will happen again tonight (Sunday night). Tis the (exam) season! Fa la la la? sigh.

Friday was biopsych lecture note summarizing. Saturday was biopsych textbook reading catch-up and notetaking. Another all day event.

Read it and wept.

Before getting down to biznaz I ate a breakfast that looked something like this:

Actually it looked exactly like this since this was my Saturday breakfast. And I?ll be the first to admit it was a dumb breakfast choice. SMALL cup of cottage cheese, HALF an orange? Quel idiot! This is why I ended up snacking my way through the entire rest of the morning. Eat an adequate breakfast folks!

Because I was hungry like 30 minutes after this, instead of downing my vitamins with some water or almond milk as is my uje, I blended up a mini green monster for some extra sustenance – Chocolate almond milk beefed up with spinach, ice and a mini scoop of chocolate protein powder.

Vitamins = Multi, C, D, B12.
Don?t ask me why I take those ones specifically, I honestly don?t know. Multi and C have been my long-time routine. D gets nothing but love left, right and centre so it seems like the right thing to do. B12 is the most recent edition. I read some stuff about it lately, it seemed like it could be a good idea. I?m still trying to manoeuvre my way through the endless amounts of vitamin info out there. I haven?t quite figured out what (if any) I should be taking, but right now this vitamin cocktail seems to work alright for me.

And speaking of vitamins, I loaded up on a bunch the natural way in my GIGANTIC salad! The Saturday special edition: with Edamame! An attempt at freezer food reduction found me a few pods left in a bag so I saved them for salad time.

After plenty more textbook time, dinner time finally arrived. I came upon a recipe that I couldn?t resist, and thus my dinner baby was born. Unfortunately things went a little awry and out of the oven came?

?my less than lovely ?Egg?cellent Baked Sweet Potato. It just doesn?t quite measure up to its goo-rific role model.

I wanted so badly for it to turn out just like Shannon?s soft puddly original. I guess I didn?t do the original potato softening nearly long enough since the spud still wasn?t soft after 30 minutes of baking with the egg cracked in. So it went in for 10(+) minutes longer. Even then it still wasn?t that soft, but at least edible. And the egg? Basically hard-boiled. Boo. I will be trying this again though, I?m determined to make one that bursts with a yolky waterfall.

And Saturday concluded with me, my laptop, my biopsych text, some chocolate, and some Fresca. Fun times, my friends, fun times.

And here we are, the last day of the weekend and last day before my week of exam hellishness really begins. I anticipate sheer panic mode setting in right around Tuesday evening (My take-exam (aka 2 essays) is due Wednesday night and my big ol? Biopsych baddie is written Thursday evening).

But since we?re not there yet and since I did not leave the house (literally, not even outside once) yesterday, I gave myself a break for Costco and one grand bowl of oats.

The oats were special because, instead of doing just rolled oats, I did rolled oats AND wheat germ, a Kristie first. I never mix my grains. Why? Because I?ve been uninformed, this was so much more fun!

OATMEAL =

- 1/4 cup oats, 2 T wheat germ, 3/4 cup water, 1/4 cup unsweetened chocolate almond milk, ~1/4 cup pumpkin, flax, cinnamon, stevia.
- ~1T egg whites stirred in towards the end.
- Topped with sugar free maple syrup, ~1T coconut butter and a dollop of strained yogurt.

And it?s official. I?m now in love with coconut butter. It?s like melted mouth gold. Or something? I?m no analogy pro. But this bowl was gold fo sho.

And then Costco happened. where we bought ten tonnes of food including (but NOT all pictured as it was strewn all over the kitchen):
- Produce like baby tomatoes, broccoli, spinach, mushrooms, snap peas, apples and cantaloupe.
- Non-produce like fresh ciabatta, turkey slices, salsa, light mayo, vanilla extract, the biggest tub of Sabra Roasted Red Pepper hummus ever, and some Seriously Strong Cheddar, seriously some of the best I?ve ever tried. It?s award-winning, it?s gotta be good! And a giant bag of jujubes.
- Non-food like Venus razor blades. On sale whaaat.

I meant a dent in the produce stack with my lunch. Which happened after gorging on fresh bread with seriously sharp cheddar.

My mean green salad with mixed greens, steamed broccoli, shrooms, tomatoes, honey mustard dressing and Saaaabra.  

Then I sat OUTSIDE for the first time in days and actually did some work out in the lovely sunlight. Made it much more bearable, that?s for sure.

Fun in the sun ended when the house shadow covered my sitting spot and spaghettio time arrived!

Steamed brocco twice in one day? Never too much! I had a big plate of the broc topped with spaghetti, topped with pasta sauce, topped with pepper, topped with hot sauce. In that order, bottom to top. Twas a dish fit for a king. Or a hungry girl who does nothing other than eat in the heat of exam season.

Once again, the food baby sits pretty on my front. I?ve had a lot of these the past week.

Before I head on out, since recently this topic seems to be popping up a lot: What vitamins do you take, if any? I really want to figure this one out. Maybe I should get my levels tested just to know for sure? Any of you had that done?

And now, once again, the books are calling. They never know how to rest their voices, do they. Must tend to or they?ll really make a fuss.

Hope you all had a great weekend and have a good (and hopefully exam free ?!) week ahead. I?m done the worst of mine by Thursday night? I can?t wait!

Giveaway Alert: A CCV $50 iHerb shopping spree!